Conveying apparatus



March 1!), 1931.

CONVEYING APPARATUS Filed Jan. 25, 1926 4 Sheets-Sheet l I ID I o. s. SELLS v 1,795,450 .5

- March 10, 1931.-

o. s. SELLS 1,795,450

CONVEYING APPARATUS Filed Ja'n.' 25, 1926 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 March 10, 1931.

o. .s. SELLS CONVEYING APPARATUS Filed Jan. 25, 1326 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 March 10,

o. s. SELLS CONVEYING APPARATUS Filed Jan. 25,";926 I 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Patented Mar. 10, 1931 UNITED STATES OGDEN PATENT OFFICE S. SELLS, OF HOOPESTON, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO FOOD MACHINERY CORPO- RATION, OF SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE CONVEYING APPARATUS Application filed January 25, 1926. Serial No. 83,594.

conveying of cans and such articles.

In the canning art where foods of various kinds are marketed in hermetically sealed containers it is a part of the process of canning to subject the filled and sealed cans to quite a high temperature for periods of time varying with the kinds and nature of food stuffs being canned.

Some canners place groups of filled and sealed cans, contained in crates for easy handling, in large retorts, hermetically seal the retorts and admit steam or hot water or other heating medium, to the sealed retorts forvarying periods of time in order to cook or sterilize the contents of the cans and thus render them capable of keeping in good condition for more or less long periods until consumed by the public. When this cooking or sterilizing process is completed the retort is discharged of the steam or hot water, and the crates of cooked cans removed and other groups placed in the retort for like treatment.

Other canners use a more advanced method in the art by cooking in an apparatus wherein the cans are admitted in continuous succession, moved more or less rapidly through the apparatus and at the same time form a seal against the escape of steam or other gaseous medium from within the apparatus, other than what little may be contained in the pockets as they-move from the interior to the exterior.

It is desirable, in a cooker or sterilizer for canned goods, to have a means of conveying the cans whereby they are rolled or turned over during the process of cooking or sterilizing. Sometimes this turning may be quite vigorously applied in order to agitate the contents of the individual cans sufficiently to get a uniform cook throughout the can which greatly improves the appearance of the goods when opened and improves the keeping qualities before the seal of the cans is broken. At other times the agitation created within the can through rolling itwhile undergoing sterilization must be very gentle or the contents of the cans will be broken up and become more or less mushy, thus lowering its grade and injuring its appearance.

The bulk of the cooking apparatus known to me at the present time employs some means of rolling or agitating the cans during the time they are moving through the sterilizing temperature, but none of them seem to have a conveying means that is universally applicable to practically all kinds of food stufi's subjected to this kind of treatment. Some of them roll the cans too slowly or gently for best results, and others give too vigorous an agitation and cause more or less disintegration of the cell structure of the contents.

It is also highly desirable in cookers of this type, to be able to subject the food stufi's to variable time periods of cook. Some commodities require only half the time at a given temperature thatothers require. This feature is obtainable by either changing the speed of the conveying mechanism to move the cans faster or slower over a fixed length of path through the cooker, or by having inlets and outlets arranged at spaced intervals along the path of travel of the cans, whereby the cans may be diverted and the path shortened to suit the materials being handled.

It is an object of my invention to provide a conveying mechanism for cookers, sterilizers or treating apparatus of any kind, that will move articles continuously forward at a uniform rate of speed; that will roll or agitate the said articles in a manner to give the best results of cook or other treatment; that will provide means whereby the length of the path of travel or the time of sterilization may be varied to suit the particular kind of product being handled; to provide an apparatus for moving articles in sequence that will be of very simple design and construction; inexpensive to operate and maintain and that will consume the minimum of factory space for a given quantity of material handled; that will be applicable to the moving of articles of any description that may be moved by a rolling or sliding movement; that may be varied in speed to shorten or lengthen the time of transit of the articles being conveyed; that may be constructed in unit form so that any desired multiple of units may form an assembly to suit any conditions of operation and that may be capable of great variation in structural features to suit the varying conditions encountered in equipping canning factories with this kind of apparatus.

With such objects in View as well as other advantages inherent in the invention, the novel structural peculiarities, novel organization of elements, and the separate and col lective operations involved in carrying out the recited objects of my invention, which will be made the subject matter of claims hereto appended, I wish it understood that the several necessary elements and combinations constituting the same may be varied in their. proportions, placement, general arrangement and operative relations without departing from the nature and scope of the invention.

In carrying out the objects of my invention in a concrete form or machine, further objects, advantages and improvements have been evolved than have been recited, and in order to make the invention more clearly un derstood there are shown in the accompanylng drawings, means and mechanism embodying the preferred structural arrangement and the preferred disposition of the different parts and combinations, in which I have simply illustrated one way of embodying the creative part or concept of the invention in a concrete form or machine and in so doing I do not wish to limit the claims to the exact details of construction shown. The described devices are simply embodiments of the invention which other structures might also employ and some of the parts and combinations may be used without the others in different types of such machines without departure from the purview of my invention, I therefore regard myself as entitled to s"uch variations from the shown and described devices as fall within the scope and meaning of the claims heretoappended.

Reference now being had to the accompanying drawings a better and cleaner understanding of the invention will be had.

Figure 1 represents a vertical side elevation, partly in section of my invention as applied to an apparatus for cooking or sterilizing food stuii's. This view clearly shows the manner of arranging the unit conveyors for this type of apparatus and the manner oi connecting these units to get a variable length of path whereby the time period of cock may be varied to suit conditions and requirements of the various materials handled. This view also shows one type of sealed inlet and outlet for the cans whereby when a pressure is maintained within the cooker, this pressure will not be allowed to drop materiallv by the escape of the heating medium. This view also clearly shows one manner of diverting the cans in their travel through the apparatus to shorten the path of travel for a variable time cook.

Figure 2 represents a vertical end elevation partly in section of the apparatus of Fig. l but on a somewhat enlarged scale. This view clearly shows the manner of transmitting motion to the various operative elements of the apparatus as well as certain details of structure.

Figure 3 is a plan of one of the conveying units showing the arrangement and operative relation of the movable elements that operate to cause a forward movement of articles placed thereon.

Figure 4 represents an enlarged detail view showing the relative movement of the elements that cause a. forward movement of articles placed on said elements.

Figure 5 represents a detail of the operative mechanism that gives the synchronized movement to the conveying means.

Figure 6 is a detail view of an end. of several of the conveyor units looking from the arrow of Fig. 1, right hand side of the view. and clearly shows the arrangement of the can diverting members for shortening the path of travel of the cans through the ap paratus.

Figure 7 is an enlarged detail of the mechanism for imparting synchronized movement to the propelling members of the conveying mechanism looking from the left of Fig. 5 and also in the same direction as the parts are seen in Fig. 2.

' Before proceeding further with the description I wish to point out that the drawings in this case are more or less diagrammatic in character; are not drawn to scale, neither do they necessarily represent the best or the preferred engineering practices in connection with the structural details of machines of this type or nature, also that the proportions and relations of some of the parts may be more or less exaggerated in size or shape to better illustrate an application of the invention to an operative machine.

The general concept'of this invention contemplates the employment of a series of bars or rails arranged in close operative relation and in parallel arrangement, each mounted on a pair'of separate and distinct cams or eccentrics. may be multiplied to any desired extent to build up units of any size. The cams or eccentrics are carried by parallel arranged shafts and are driven in the manner shown. The movement of the bars imparted by the cams or eccentrics may be likened to a wave motion. As shown in the drawings the eccentrics are placed on the shafts in 90 periods, so that as the shafts revolve the bars will be raised and lowered in synchronized relation to produce the above mentioned wave motion. A can or any article that will roll or slide being placed on the tops of these bars while in motion will be very gently propelled forward due to the rising and lowering movement imparted to the bars by the eccentrics, this is best illustrated 'in Fig. 4.

Since the drawings illustrate the invention as applied to a cooker for food stuffs the description will refer particularly to this class of apparatus.

The numeral 1 represents a cooker shell which may be either round or square. In Fig. 2 the full line shell is shown as round and the heavy dotted line surrounding the mechanism is shown as square. The square type will occupy less factory space and will require much less heating medium to maintain operation and will therefore be much more economical in operation. 2, 3, 4 and 5 represent a bank of propelling units superposed one over the other and connected at their ends by means of curved chutes for the conveying by gravity of articles from one to the other. 6 represents a pocketed rotary valve member functioning as an inlet device. The cans or other articles are supplied through the chutes 7 and a group are admitted to the pocket of the valve each time it passes the mouth of the chute 7. In the drawings I have illustrated groups of five cans. It is obvious that any number may constitute a group, the groups may be multiples of two or multiples of three or five. This is determined entirely when an apparatus is designed and constructed, where it will be made to furnish some desired capacity and to cover some desired floor space.

8 and 9 represent the outlet valve and chute which operate in the same manner as the valve and chute 6 and 7, These valves will permit the movement of cans therethrough without undue waste of steam, if steam is used for heating, since the valves form a steam tight seal with their casings in which they rotate freely but with a good running fit.

As the group of cans is discharged from the The bars arranged side by side valve 6 they drop onto the first of the vertia slow and uniform forward movement in the direction of the arrow A Fig. 1. A few of the cans are shown by the dotted lines in this figure. In order to determine the direction of movement of the cans or articles the top edges of the bars 10 are beveled as at 11 Fig. 4, the articles always moving with the bevel. In the case of moving cans it is desirable that each line of cans be maintained in single file so that no clogging will occur, this is accomplished by means of the spacer bars 12 arranged over the bars 10 and fixed in position. These bars 12 may be carried around the corners or ends of the units and thus connect each unit so the'cans will be accurately guided from one unit to the other.

Fig. 2 clearly shows one way of transmitting rotary motion to the eccentric shafts. Power from any suitable source, not shown may be supplied to the pulley 15, which, through the medium of the mitre gears shown will transmit motion to all of the shafts shown.

By reference to Figs. 5 and it will be seen just how the bars 10 are given their synchronizedmotion. The eccentrics 16 being located on the shafts 13 and 14 in 90 intervals, will, as they rotate, alternately raise and lower the bars 10 in a sequence that will always keep one bar ahead of the other in one period of movement and one bar following the other during the other period of movement. The eccentrics 16 carry flanges which give a slight separation to the bars and help to hold them'in upright positions. The bars may rest freely on the eccentrics and may therefore be instantly lifted out if for any reason itbecomes necessary to remove them.

There are various ways in which the path of travel of cans or articles may be varied to produce a shorter. or longer time period of cook. In the drawings I have indicated one way of accomplishing this result. At the right of the view Fig. 1 there will be seen two deflecting gates 17 and 18. The full line po sition of these gates will permit of the full time of cook, as the groups of cans will be caused to traverse the full length of the path of travel through the cooker. If it is desired to reduce the time of cock one half the gate 17 by means of the handle 17a will be placed in the dotted position when the cans from the rectly to the discharge runway 19 and pass out of the cooker.

If a cooker was desired wherein smaller variations of time periods were wanted gates and runways may be easily arranged whereby only one of the units 1, 2, 3 or 4 could be cut out or in at will.

\Vhile I have shown a cooker with superposed units it is obvious that a continuous unit of any length may be used if factory space is available and such a unit is preferred. In a unit of this type a variable time cook would most economically be obtained by varying the speed of the cooker, or by having spaced inlets or outlets arranged along the path of travel through the cooker.

Where steam is used as a heating medium it would be supplied through the pipe 20 and condensation removed through the pipe 21, by the maniplation of suitable valves, not shown.

Operation The operation of a machine embodying my invention as illustrated in the drawings would be substantially as follows:

Groups of cans, or if desirable single files of cans, would be passed through the inlet valve 6 and drop onto the tops of the bars 10, the bars 10 rising and falling through the medium of the rotating eccentrics 16 will gradually move the cans in the directions of the beveled top faces of the bars and will cause the cans to roll gently while being raised and lowered by the bars, the bars just ahead of the cans always lowering and the bars just back of the cans always rising will push the cans forward in a continuous forward movement by a series of slight impulses. All of the bars moving in this synchronized manner will gradually carry the cans entirely across the unit 2 when it the gate 17 is placed in the full line position, they will pass around the chute and onto the bars of the unit 3 and be propelled across this unit in the same manner due to the bevel on the bars of this unit being opposite to those of unit 2. When the cans have passed over unit 3 they will pass around the end chute and onto unit 4 where they will be propelled across this unit in the same manner and direction as in unit 2 as the bevel tops of the bars 10 are the same in unit 4 as is unit 2. It now it is desired to reduce the cooking period by one quarter the gate 18 may be placed in the dotted position when the cans will pass into the discharge chute 19 instead of traversing the unit 5. The arrangement of the gates 17 and 18 will permit of using unit 1 alone for a time period; units 2 and 5 for a time period or units 2, 3 and 4 for a time period, thus giving considerable variation in cooking time. This arrange ment will also permit of what I may term group cooking. By this I mean passing say, 1,000 cans of a certain kind of product that may require a time period equal to that of using all of the four units shown, after which a group of cans may be passed that will require only two of the units shown, and following that a group of cans requiring three of the units shown. In this manner the output of several lines of canning equipment may be kept operating and the cans cooked as sealed and thus prevent an undue accumulation of goods in the canning factory awaiting an opportunity to pass through the cooker.

It is also to be noted in the operation of this machine and this invention as herein embodied, that there are no chains or sprockets within the cooker space, and all troubles from breaking chains is removed, and this is of very great importance. Cookers employing chain conveyors that are full of cans when a chain breaks are a very expensive piece of equipment, since the time required to remove a broken chain with a cooker full of steaming hot cans is a serious handicap to efficient production. The lot of cans in the cooker, numbering many hundreds, will be either under or over cooked and therefore cannot be placed with the regular pack. The lots of cans coming from the closing machines cannot be received by the cooker and must therefore be stored and rehandled and if they have to be stored for any length of time the goods will probably spoil, and if the canning machines are stopped then the goods are also likely to spoil because they cannot be placed in cans and cooked within the time limit for the class of goods being handled. Another important feature of a cooker embodying my invention is the practically noiseless operation. Gears can be made to run comparatively quiet and the eccentrics fixed on the shafts are practically noiseless, the result is a cooker of large capacity wherein the only noise of operation will be from the contact of cans with each other. The propelling bars 10 are preferably made of hard wood so that there will be practically no noise where the cans contact with them.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. An apparatus for handling rolling ohjects comprising a table like structure made up of movable transversely arranged parallel bars just slightly spaced from each other, and comprising a series of groups with four bars to a group, longitudinally disposed operating shafts under the ends of said bars, groups of four eccentrics on each of said shafts set at 90 degree periods there being two opposed eccentrics set at the same period to operate each bar,'in each group of four, whereby each bar of a group will receive vertical movement in 90 degree sequence and each corresponding bar of each group will move in the same period, the top edge of each bar being beveled in the same direction whereby rolling articles resting on the said bars will be given a combined vertical and longitudinal movement causing them to roll along the said table like structure in a direction transversely to the lengthwise direction of the said bars.

2. An apparatus for handling rolling objects and giving treatment thereto comprising a table like structure of vertically movable transversely arranged bars just slightly spaced apart, and comprising a series of groups of four bars to a group, operating shafts located under said bars and positioned at right angles thereto, groups of four eccentrics on said shafts, two groups for each group of said bars said eccentrics being set at 90 degree periods, means for rotating said shafts in unison so that each bar of a group will receive vertical movement in 90 degree sequence and each corresponding bar of each group will move in the same period, the top edges of each bar being beveled in the same direction whereby rollable articles resting on the said bars will receive a forward impulse through the combined vertical movement of said bars causing said articles to roll along the said table' like structure in a direction transversely to the direction of location of said bars, a-housing enclosing the said structure with means for admitting treating medium thereto to give treatment to said articles while rolling along the said table like structure.

8. An apparatus for handling rolling ob jects and giving treatment thereto comprising a series of table like structures in superposed relation and consisting of a series of verti cally movable bars slightly spaced apart, the said bars being divided into groups of four bars each, operating shafts located under said bars and positioned at right angles thereto, eccentrics on said shafts arranged in groups of four to correspond to the said groups of four bars each, said eccentrics being set at 90 degree periods, means for rotating said shafts in unison so that each corresponding bar in each group will move in the same period, the top edges of all bars being beveled in the same direction whereby rollable objects resting on said bars will receive a forward impulse through the combined vertical movement of said bars causing said articles to roll along said table like structure in a direction transversely to the directio i of location of said bars, a housing enclosing the said structure with means for admitting treating medium thereto to give treatment to said articles while moving along said series of superposed table like structures with means connecting the ends of said table like structures to guide articles from one table to a table thereunder.

4. An apparatus for handling and giving treatment to rollable articles comprising a series of table like structures arranged in superposed relation and consisting of a series of vertically movable bars slightly spaced apart and lying in parallel relation, said bars being divided into groups of four each, operating shafts arranged under the ends of said bars and resting at right angles thereto,

transverse shafts adjacent the'ends of each pair of shafts of each unit, gear connections between said shafts, a vertical shaft having driving connection with each of said transverse shafts to impart motion to all of said operating shafts, eccentrics on said first mentioned operating shafts arranged in groups of four to correspond to the groups of said vertically movable bars, said eccentrics being arranged in uniform periods to operate said bars in the same periods the corresponding bar of each group being operated thereby in unison whereby objects resting on the top edges of said bars will receive a forward impulse from each bar of each group causing it to roll along said table like structure, a housing enclosing said series of superposed units with means connecting the ends of said units to transfer articles from a unit to a unit thereunder, and means for admitting a treating medium into said housing to give treatment to said articles as they are propelled therethrough, with drive means for imparting movement to said mechanism.

5. An apparatus for treating food products in closed containers comprising a casing, mechanism for supporting and rolling the containers through the casing including groups of bars, each bar being of less width than the diameter of the containers and serving as the sole supporting means for the containers, and means for raising the bars in each groupin different timed relation to each other for rolling the containers along the supporting bars.

6. An apparatus for treating food products in closed containers comprising a casing, mechanism for supporting and rolling the containers through the casing including groups of bars, each bar being of less width than the diameter of the containers and serving as the sole supporting means for the containers, and means for raising the bars in each group in different timed relation to each other for rolling the containers along the supporting bars, said bars being timed so as to control the forward rolling of the containers and so as to cause the containers to be lifted and lowered as they are moved along the supporting bars.

7. An apparatus for conveying rollable articles through imparting a rolling motion thereto comprising a series of propelling bars arranged in side by side close relation to prevent articles from passing therebetween, means for imparting substantially up and down motion to said bars in stepped relation, the lengthwise dimensions of said bars extending across the path of articles moved by said bars so that articles resting thereon are given a rolling motion by a succession of lifting impulses causing them to roll from bar to bar always in a forward direction, the top edges of the bars being the sole support for the articles at all times.

8. An apparatus for conveying articles through imparting a rolling motion thereto comprising a series of propelling bars arranged in side by side close relation to prevent articles from passing therebetween, means for imparting substantially an up and down movement to adjacent bars to cause them to follow each other in stepped relation raising and lowering the articles resting l0 thereon and causing them to roll from bar to bar through an undulating wave path always in a forward direction, the top edges of the bars being the sole support for-the articles at all times.

9. An apparatus for conveying objects which are adapted for a rolling passage over a surface, mechanism comprising groups of bars arranged in side by side close relation to prevent articles passing therebetween and acting as the sole supporting and rolling means for articles resting thereon, each bar being of less width than the diameter of objects supported and rolled thereby and extending substantially transversely to the path of objects moved thereby with means for raising the bars in each group in such timed relation to each other that objects are rolled therealong.

In testimony whereof I affix my si nature.

OGDEN s. SELLS. 

